CHAPTER VI

THE TRUEMANS.

WILLIAM TRUEMAN was born in Yorkshire, England, in the year 1720, and emigrated to America with his family in the year 1775. They were probably passengers in the ship JENNIE, Captain Foster, which came to Halifax that spring with a number of emigrants from Yorkshire. The family consisted of William Trueman, his wife Ann, and their son William, an only child, a young man in his twenty-fourth year.

Billsdale* was the name of the township they left in the Old Country. They were Methodists in religion, but had been members of the Episcopal Church and brought with them the prayer-books and commentaries of that communion.

[FOOTNOTE: *Billsdale, Westside Township, is a long moorland township of widely scattered houses on the west side of the Rye, extending from six to eight miles N. N. W. from Helmsley, and is mainly the property of the Earl Haversham. Its area is 4,014 acres; its land rises on lofty fells at Rydale Head. Hawnby parish includes the five townships of Hawnby, Arden, Billsdale, Westside, Dale Town, and Snillsby, the area of the parish being 24,312 acres. END OF FOOTNOTE]

In addition to his business as a farmer, William Trueman, senior, had taken the legal steps necessary in England to enable him to work as a joiner if he were so inclined. The son William had been engaged in the dry goods business a year or two before coming to Nova Scotia.

After landing at Halifax they came by schooner to Fort Cumberland, and very soon after settled about four miles from the fort at Point de Bute, then called Prospect.

There does not seem to have been many of the name left in Yorkshire at this time, and those who were in Billsdale and vicinity shortly moved to other parts of the country. A nephew of the first William, named Harmon, moved to another township, married, and had a family of ten children. Mary, Harmon's youngest daughter, married a man named Brown, and they called one of their sons Trueman Brown. Charles, a son of Trueman,

spent a year at Prospect in the eighties, and Harmon, a brother of Charles, visited the home in 1882-83. I have not been able to trace the family in Yorkshire in any but this one branch. There is a photograph at Prospect of John Trueman, a son of the Harmon here mentioned, which shows a strong likeness to some of the family in this country.

A family of Truemans living in Ontario came to Canada about the year 1850, but we have not been able to trace any relationship.

The first purchase of land by the Truemans in Nova Scotia was from Joshua Mauger. This property was conveyed to William Trueman, sen. The deed reads: "I, Joshua Mauger, Esq., of London, in Great Britain, Esq. member of Parliament, of the town of Poole, in the county of Dorsetshire, for and in consideration of the sum of ninety pounds lawful money of the Province of Nova Scotia," etc., etc. This ninety pounds was paid for eighty acres of upland and fifty-four acres of marsh adjoining a wood lot on Bay Verte Road, and a right in the great division of woodland, so-called. The deed was signed at Halifax by the Hon. John Butler, as attorney for Joshua Mauger, on the 8th September, 1777, and the money paid the same day. Thomas Scurr and J. B. Dight were the witnesses, it was proved at Fort Cumberland on the 31st of Sept., 1777, by Thomas Scurr, and registered in New Brunswick by James Odell, May 3rd, 1785.

The next purchase of real estate was made from Thomas Scurr, the place now called Prospect Farm. Six hundred and fifty pounds lawful money of the Province of New Brunswick was the amount paid. Between the first and second purchase the Province had been divided, and that part of the township of Cumberland in which the Truemans settled had gone to New Brunswick. The number of acres in this last purchase was estimated at eight hundred, including nearly five hundred acres of wilderness land. The deed was witnessed by Thomas Chandler and Amos Botsford. Mrs. Scurr did not sign the deed, and the following is the copy of a document found very carefully laid away among the old papers at Prospect:

"VIRGINIA, PRINCESS ANN COUNTY, "June 25th, 1789. "On this

day personally appeared before me, Dennis Dooley, Justice of the Peace of the said county of the commonwealth of Virginia, Elizabeth Scurr, and voluntarily relinquished her right of a dower in a certain tract or piece of

land in the town of Westmoreland and Province of New Brunswick, viz.: Three eighty-acre lots, Nos. sixteen, eighteen and twenty, with the marsh and wilderness thereto belonging. All in division letter B, and described fully in a deed from Thomas Scurr to William Trueman and on record in Westmoreland, No. 142. "Given under my hand and seal this day as above. "DENNIS DOOLEY. "The within Elizabeth Scurr doth hereby voluntarily subscribe her name to the within contents. "ELIZABETH SCURR."

Dennis Dooley, Justice of the Peace of the commonwealth of Virginia in the year 1789, was a good penman.

James Law owned Prospect Farm before Thomas Scurr. The deed conveying the property from Law to Scurr is still among the documents at Prospect. As Law was early in the country after the expulsion, it is probable he was the first to get possession after the removal of the Acadians.

Thomas Scurr, sen., left the country soon after selling Prospect Farm. The old chronicles say he was a man very much esteemed for his piety. He represented Cumberland township, for one session at least, in the Legislature at Halifax. In 1785, "in opposition to the advice of a friend against going from a place where was wanted to a place where he was not wanted," he removed to the South, and purchased an estate near Norfolk, Virginia. He repented too late, for nearly all the members of his large family fell victims to diseases peculiar to southern climates.

There was another Thomas Scurr in the country at this time, probably a son of Thomas Scurr, sen., who married Elizabeth Cornforth, of Sackville, in August, 1787. Mrs. Scurr lived only a week after giving birth to a son. The boy was called Benjamin, and was taken care of by his aunt, Mrs. Jonathan Burnham. Thomas Scurr, after the death of his wife, left Sackville with the intention of going to the West Indies, and was never heard from after. It was supposed he was lost at sea. The Scurrs in Sackville are descendants of the boy Benjamin.

William Trueman, sen., was above the average height, and rather stout, with head, shoulders and face that indicated strong character. In personal appearance his grandson Robert much resembled him. He was fifty-five years of age when he came to Nova Scotia. His wife was eight years his

senior. She, too, was tall, with a countenance showing a great deal of reserve power.

William, the son, was a small man, with round features and dark hair. His son John was said to resemble him closely. He must have retained his youthful appearance well into mature life, for after he had been in this country some years he went to Fort Lawrence to poll his vote and was challenged for age by the opposing candidate. His youthful appearance had led to the belief that he had not arrived at the age to entitle him to exercise the franchise. His left arm was partially withered, or had not grown to its full size, from an injury received in childhood through the carelessness of a nurse. The family brought with them from England some furniture. There is still the old arm-chair at Prospect, and the old clock keeps good time for the fifth generation.

There is no record of the impression the new country made upon the family, but judging from a letter received by William Trueman, sen., the year after his arrival, and copied below, it must have been favorable:

"SNILLSWORTH, February 9th, 1776. "DEAR BROTHER AND

SISTER,-- "These are with our love to you and to let you know that we are in a tolerable state of health at present. "We have many of us been poorly, but are much better. We received a letter from you last November, which gave a great deal of satisfaction of mind on your account, because we had been informed that you had nowhere to settle in, but as you have given us a particular account concerning your situation and how you were settled and that you liked Nova Scotia and was all in good health of body it was much to our satisfaction, and I hope you will let us hear more particularly from you how your chattle and corn answers thee, and how and what product your ground doth bring forth, and what sort of grains your ground answers best for, and what chattle you keep, and what you can make of your chattle and how much milk your cows give and what is the most profitable things you have. "Now, dear brother, let me know the truth and nothing but the truth when you write. "I desire that you would let me hear from you at any opportunity whenever it suits your convenience for I think we shall never have the opportunity to see each other's face any more here below, but I desire to hear from thee and I hope thee will do the same by

me as long as our lives shall be on this side eternity. "Farewell, I conclude with my love. Sarah Bently and John Bakers are in good health and send love to you all."

The following extract from another letter received at Prospect about the same time, will be interesting to some:

"SNILLSWORTH, Feb. 19th, 1776. "DEAR BROTHER AND

SISTER AND NEVY,-- "These are salutations of love to you all, expecting they may find you in good health as they leave us at present. "We received your letter November last and was glad to hear from you, but more especially that you were all in good health of body and that you like 'Nove' (Nova Scotia) very well because we have had many slight accounts that you were in a very poor situation, but heard nothing to our satisfaction, and that you would have returned back to Old England but had nothing to pay your passage with, which gave us both me and my wife a great deal of distraction of mind. So we consulted with sister Sarah Bently and more of our friends that we would raise money to pay your passage to Old England, but dear brother and sister, as we have had a few lines from your own hand that you like the country well, so it has put and end to that consultation."

It would be difficult to answer at once some of the questions asked in these letters. They had only arrived in America the previous summer, and unless thy purchased cows on their arrival, they could not at this date have had much experience in dairying, and it would be the same with grain. There is a tradition that the stock, ten cows and a number of other cattle, were purchased with the Scurr farm, but this farm was not bought until some years after. The Truemans probably followed the course taken by many of the first settlers at that time, which was to lease a farm for a term of years, in that way gaining experience in the country before finally purchasing land themselves. After the family had been two years in the country, William Trueman, jun., married Elizabeth Keillor, a daughter of Thomas Keillor, of Cumberland Point, or No. 1, now called Fowler's Hill. The Keillors came from Skelton, Yorkshire, to Nova Scotia in 1774, and settled on the farm at present occupied by a great-great-grandson, Charles Fowler.

It was near the date of this marriage that the Eddy rebels were terrorizing the settlers around Fort Cumberland, and shortly after the event Mr. and Mrs. Trueman went to Mr. Keillor's to spend the Sabbath. During the day the house was surrounded by the rebels, and the inmates kept prisoners until the next day, when the rebels dispersed, and the young couple made their way home as quickly as possible, to relieve the anxiety at Prospect.

The Keillors and Truemans had been friends in England, and were related in some degree. Elizabeth Keillor was but nineteen when she consented to take charge of a home of her own, and, as subsequent years proved, well did she discharge the duties that devolved upon her in that relationship. Though below medium size, she had a nervous force and will-power that enabled her to accomplish more than many of stronger build. It is told of her that on a Sabbath, when the family were all at church, she noticed something wrong with the cattle, and on going to see what caused the trouble, she found a cow so badly injured by some of the larger animals, that to make the carcass of any value it would have to be slaughtered at once. Mrs. Trueman went to the house, got the butcher- knife, and bled the cow to death.

Nervous force, like any other force in man or woman, has its limit, and if used too fast it will not be there when wanted in old age. Mrs. Trueman did not live to be very old, and her last years were full of suffering. Overtaxed nature had given way, and the penalty had to be paid.

The family never separated, but all moved into the house on the Scurr farm, and began in earnest to face the battle of life in the New World.

Halifax was at that time the market for butter and beef, so after the wants of the settlers and the commissariat at Fort Cumberland had been supplied, such produce as could be sent by schooners to Halifax was forwarded in that way, and the cattle, for beef, were driven overland-- a long and tedious journey.

Mills for sawing lumber or making flour were scarce. The stones are yet to be seen in Sackville with which grain was ground by hand-power.

The Truemans soon began to experiment in mill building. Their first venture was a mill driven by horse-power. A windmill followed, and was

located on the high ground at the corner where the Point de Bute road turns at right angles, leading to Jolicure. This must have been an ideal spot for such a structure. There is no record of how long this mill stood, but it could not have been long.

There was a good stream on the farm for a water-mill, but it was not utilized for this purpose for some years, probably for the want of means. Their first work in this line was the building of a small mill on the brook that formed the ravine at the south-west side of the farm. A dam was thrown across the stream at the head of the ravine, and the water carried in a flume some distance farther down the brook; the great fall of water enabling them to use a large over-shot water-wheel. It is only quite recently that the main shaft of the wheel has disappeared.

A long dam was built across the stream that leads to what is now called the Upper Mill, for the purpose of turning the water to the new mill, and also forming a reserve pond. This dam can be plainly seen at the present time, although covered with quite a growth of timber. The mill in the ravine did not stand long either, and the next move was to dam the water on the main brook, now called the Trueman Mill Stream, and put up a large and substantial grist-mill, that proved a great convenience to the whole country for many years.

Beside this large expenditure in mills, most of which was made in the lifetime of the senior William, there was a large outlay made for dyking and aboideau building. Piece by piece the marsh was being reclaimed from the tide and made to yield its wealth of hay and pasture for the support of flocks and herds.

I find a record showing there were seventeen cows on the farm in 1790, and for the benefit of some of the members of the younger generation who live on farms, here are their names: Cerloo, Red-heifer, Spotty, Debro, Beauty, Madge, Lucy, Daisy, White-face, Mousie, Dun, Rose, Lady Cherry, Black-eye, Spunk and Roan.

The following letter, received at Prospect in 1789, tells of a more cheerful spirit in business in England, but shows that they had floods and troubles of that kind then as now:

"HELM HOUSE BILSDALE, Augt. ye 15th, 1789. "DEAR

COUSINS,-- "I received two letters from you in the course of the last year, and am exceeding glad to hear from you and that you do well and are well, and tho I have long delayed writing yet it is not want of respect, but it was long before I could have any certain inteligence from Mr. Swinburn, So I now take the oppertunity to let you know how I and my Sisters are situate. I married Helling the daughter of Richard Barr, by whom I have had 3 boys and 2 girls all liveing and healthfull. Aylsy is married to John the son of James Boyes and lives at Woolhousecroft, has no children. Sally is married to John Cossins and lives at Hawnby where Robt. Barker lived. She has 3 children the two last were twins they were born about Candlemas last and one of them is a very weakly child, my mother is married to old Rich'd Barr my wife's father and lives at Huntington nigh York. I think we most of us live pretty well. Mr. ----- has advanced his land a great deal but since the peace the times are pretty good we have this summer a very plentiful crop and we have a fine season for Reaping the same, but in the beginning of haytime we had an excessive flood as almost ever was known so that much hay was swept away and much more sanded. Many bridges were washed down and in some places much chattle drowned. My cousin John Garbut is married to James Boyes' widow and lives at Helm house. So I shall conclude with my and my wife's duty to my unkle and aunt and our kind love to you and your wife and children and subscribe ourselves your very affectionate cousins, "JOHN AND HELLING TRUEMAN."

There was no break in the family by death until 1797. That year William Trueman, sen., died, aged seventy-seven years, twenty-two of which he had spent in America. The Mauger farm, his first purchase, was left to Harmon, his eldest grandson. The family of his son William had grown by this time to six sons and two daughters, and success financially, in some measure at least, had been achieved.

With milling, dyking and general farming, there was work at Prospect to keep all the members of the family busy, besides a large force of hired help.

It was decided this year (1797) to build a new house and barn, and the site fixed upon was about one hundred yards south of the Scurr house,

where they had lived since the place came into their possession. The barn was put up the next year, and measured eighty feet long by thirty- three wide, with thirteen foot posts. A part of this barn is still used for a stable. In 1799 the house was built, the main portion being made of brick burned on the marsh near by. It fronted due south, and was twenty-seven feet by thirty-seven feet, and two stories high, with a stone kitchen on the west side. The cost of building was eight hundred pounds. This was before the days of stoves, there being six fire-places in the main house and large one in the kitchen.

In 1839 the stone kitchen was pulled down and one of wood built on the north side. In 1879 an addition was made, and now (October 2nd, 1900), it is as comfortable a dwelling as it has ever been. Five generations have lived in it. Three generations have been born and grown to manhood and womanhood within its four walls, and they have never known the death of a child, nor, with but one exception, the death of a young person.

On the 29th January, 1800, Mrs. Trueman, sen., died in the eighty- eighth year of her age. Although sixty-two years old when she came to America, she lived to see the birth of nine grandchildren.

In 1801, Thompson, the youngest son, was born. The family now numbered seven sons and three daughters. This year William Black, known in Methodist history as Bishop Black, was one of the family at Prospect from November 17th, 1801, to April 13th, 1802. One week of this time was spent in Dorchester, for which a rebate was made in the board bill. The bill was made out at the rate of five shillings per week.

In 1802, Mr. Trueman began to keep what he calls "a memorandum of events." The records chiefly refer to home work, the weather and neighborhood happenings. As a record of the weather, before thermometers and barometers were in general use, it must be as perfect as possible. As a record of farm work it is quite minute, and gives the reader an almost exact knowledge of what was done on the farm each week of the twenty years.

To those who live in the age of steam and electricity, when it is possible to be informed at night of the doings of the day on the other side of the planet, it is hard to realize how little interest was taken a century

ago in anything outside of the community in which one lived. This accounts in part, no doubt, for the scant references in this journal to public events. Only very rarely is an election mentioned, even in the writer's own county. Only once is there reference to war, although the war of 1812 and the battle of Waterloo took place during the years of the record, and must have had a marked effect upon the trade of the Provinces at that time.

Mr. Trueman made several trips to Halifax each year, and met, while there, many of the leading Methodist men of the city. The Blacks and the Bells were his friends. His house was the home of the ministers of his church during all his life, and many of the public men who visited Cumberland were his guests at different times.

The first entry in the journal is dated May 5th, 1802, and reads: "wind N.W.; cold stormy day. Planted some apple trees; frost not out of the ground.

"May 6th--Wind N.W.; ground covered with snow two inches thick; disagreeable.

"May 8th--Wind N.W.; cold, backward weather. Mr. Marsdon preached his farewell sermon at the Stone Church."

"July 5th--This day was appointed by the Government as a day of thanksgiving for the blessings of peace. Mr. Bennet preached at Amherst Court House, from Psalm 12, 1st verse, to a crowded and very attentive audience.

"July 12th--Started for Halifax with thirty oxen. Returned on the 22nd; had a very good time."

(Ten days was the usual time taken on these trips. The drovers would start some hours, or perhaps a day, in advance of Mr. Trueman. He would go on horse-back, in knee breeches, and with the old fashioned saddle- bags.)

"Sept. 28th--Started to Halifax with twenty-four cattle.

"Oct. 2nd--Arrived at Halifax Sunday night. Wm." (his son) "taken sick with measles. Monday, and Tuesday, very sick. Wednesday, some better. Thursday, walked the streets. Friday, started for home.

"Oct. 13th--High winds; very high tides; marshes much flooded.

"Sept. 14th, 1803--Stephen Millage died of shock of palsy. Mr.

Oliphant, Methodist minister, arrived this month at our house.

"Nov. 12th, 1803--Election at Dorchester. Mr. Knapp goes in without opposition."

These extracts from the journal will show the character of the record.

In March, 1804, there was a three days' snowstorm--"fell nigh two feet." An attempt was made this year to aboideau the Aulac River, where it runs through the farm now owned by R. T. McLeod.

The Aulac at that time was one of the largest of the rivers emptying into the Cumberland Basin. It was a great undertaking to dam its waters with an aboideau, and to make matters worse, the place chosen proved to have a quicksand bottom, which made it almost impossible to build a firm foundation. For nearly four years they worked at this aboideau, and finally had to abandon it. Dated Dec. 27th, 1808, there is this entry in the journal: "Working at the aboideau. Storming in the morning. Snow six inches deep.

"Dec. 28th--Working at byto; very fine day. The hole nigh filled up."

On March 20th, he writes: "Concluded to give up the Byto." There is a reckless disregard of rules in spelling the word "aboideau," but doubtless the pronunciation was as varied then as now. Being obliged to let this work go must have been a great disappointment and a great loss as well. It was not till 1829, more than twenty years after, that the aboideau, now known as the "Trueman Byto," was built.

A night's experience during the building of the first aboideau was long remembered by the family at Prospect. The following is the only reference made to it in the journal: "June 7th, 1804--The sluice went adrift; was up to Nappan." On the 9th: "Got back as far as Cumberland; wind favorable in coming back."

The sluice referred to is a large wooden box or waterway, which is placed near the centre of the aboideau and as near as possible in the bed of the river. The great height of the tides, and the rapid current that runs up and down the stream twice in twenty-four hours, make it a most difficult operation to get one of these sluices bedded. The sluice would be about fifty feet long, fifteen feet wide, and five or six feet deep.

The men were hard at work after the sluice had been got into its place, trying to make it secure with the weight of mud, but the tide coming too

quick for them lifted it out of its bed. Four of the Trueman boys sprang on the sluice as it floated down the river, in the hope of saving it in some way. It proved, however, to be a most unmanageable craft, and they could do little to stay their course down the river, and in spite of every effort were carried out into the Basin. Night came on and their only chance of safety was, if possible, to stick to the plank box in the hope that the currents might carry them to some point where they could get safely to shore. Next day their unwieldy craft grounded near Nappan, and they at once landed and were hospitably entertained at a farm-house near by. After getting supplies and sending word to Prospect of their safety, they again boarded their strange vessel and succeeded that day in getting back to the mouth of the river, and finally back to their starting point.

Mrs. Trueman never wholly recovered from the nervous shock of that night. There was little hope in the minds of any that the men would ever get safely to land.

Thirty years had passed since the family had left England. The letter given below shows how warm an interest the friends there still had in them:

"DEAR COUSIN,--We received yours dated Jan. 15, but not till late in September, 1804, and we are glad to hear that you and your family are all in good health and enjoying prosperity in your affairs of life. We had heard by your last letter of the death of your mother. My kind husband died something more than six years since. Your Aunt Sarah Bently died some time before my husband. Your Aunt Mary Flintoft is yet alive and enjoys as good health as can be expected, her age considered. Your Aunt Ann Trueman is yet alive and well as can be expected. Your Cousin Harmon married and is doing very well. He lives at Kelshaw, in the west of Yorkshire, and has a large family and keeps a public house. Alice is married and lives at Woodhouse Croft and has only one son. Ann and Sarah both live at Hornby and enjoy good health. I and my eight children live yet at the old habitation, namely at Helmhouse, and enjoy a sufficiency of the necessaries of life. Jane Chapman and Ann are both alive and enjoy as good health as most people at almost 80 years of age, and desire their kind love to you and your wife. James Hewgill and wife

do the same. They never had any children. The last summer's crop of corn was poorly laden, so that wheat is now from ten to fifteen shillings per bushel, and is like to be more, as war being carried on makes taxes very high; but still, thanks to a kind Providence, industrious people may yet live above want. And soon shall all worldly calamities be over, and then if we are prepared for death we shall know woes and calamities no more. Pray write again when opportunity serves. "I remain your very loving cousin, "ELINOR TRUEMAN. "Helmhouse, Billsdale. "March 7th, 1805."

The first marriage in the family at Prospect was in July, 1805. The entry in the journal is: "Thomas and Mary were married by Rev. Mr. Perkins." Mr. Perkins was a minister of the Episcopal Church.

In 1806 I find this entry: "Mr. Bamford preached in the Stone Church, and Mr. Perkins administered the sacrament." This must have been before the Methodist minister was allowed to administer the sacrament.

Mr. Trueman was evidently mistaken in the name of Thomas's wife. He calls her Mary. Her name was Policene Gore; but as she was always called Polly, the mistake no doubt occurred in that way.

From a letter received from Rev. Wm. Black at this time, the following extract is taken:

"I give you joy on the marriage of your son Thomas, and as I hear John is on the point of being married, too, I also wish you the same blessing on him. It would afford me much joy to hear that all your children were made acquainted with the saving benefits of religion. For parents to see their children well settled in this world and seeking the world to come must, I apprehend, be an unspeakable satisfaction. Oh, let us pray more and advise them to turn to the Lord with all their hearts. "Please to remember me kindly to all the family. I do feel a sincere regard for you all and wish to meet you in the Land of God. "Farewell, "From your unworthy friend, "WM. BLACK."

Policene Gore's mother had a more than ordinarily eventful life. Her grandson Edward writes:

"My grandmother was born in the United States, then the New England colonies. Her first husband was Captain Ward; their home was near the garrison on Grattan Heights. Captain Ward arrived home from sea

with his vessel the day before Arnold made his attack on the garrison, and, joining in the defence, was fatally shot. Mrs. Ward's next husband was my grandfather Gore, who was also a sea-captain. Some years after they were married Captain Gore took his wife to Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia, where they had friends, and her husband returned with his vessel to make another voyage, but was never heard from after. It was supposed the vessel was lost with all on board."

After living some years in widowhood, Mrs. Gore married a Mr. Foster, a school-teacher. They lived for a time in a house on the school lands in Jolicure. The schoolmaster did not live long to enjoy his married life. His successor was a Mr. Trites, of Salisbury. He only lived a few months after marriage. Mrs. Trites' fifth and last husband was a Mr. Siddall, of Westmoreland Point. After his death Mrs. Siddall lived with her daughter, Mrs. Trueman, where, in the words of her grandson, "she lived eighteen years, a happy old woman and a blessing in the family." She was in her eighty-fourth year at the time of her death.

Mrs. Siddall's house was the only one in the village not burned during the battle of Grattan's Heights. It is still kept in repair, and called the Gore House. Harmon, a grandson, visited the Heights a few years ago, and was present at the one-hundredth anniversary of the battle. Recently a letter came into the possession of Edward Trueman, written by his great- grandmother to his grandmother. Among other things, she writes: "I hear that you are married again, and that Policene is also married. I have not heard either of yours husbands' names; do write, and let me know them."

Policene Gore was born in 1788, and Thomas Trueman in 1786, which would make them seventeen and nineteen years old when the marriage knot was tied--a young couple to start out in life.

John married Nancy Palmer, September 12th, 1805, William married Jane Ripley, January 22nd, 1806, and Harmon, the first-born, married Cynthia Bent, June 8th, 1807. The four eldest sons were married within the year and a half, and on April 14th, 1808, Sallie, the eldest daughter, entered the matrimonial haven. This was thinning out the old home pretty fast. The sons, however, all settled near Prospect, and were several years getting finally located in their own homes. Harmon took the Mauger farm

left him by his grandfather; Thomas, the Patten farm, joining the glebe. John settled at Mount Whatley; Willie took the mill property and farm now in possession of his grandsons, Amos and Johnston Trueman.

The drain on the home place to start for themselves so many of the family, and in so short a time, must have been considerable. Harmon had a house, and barn to build. Several entries in the journal refer to his getting out timber. On July 16th, 1806, Harmon raised his house. This house, yet one of the most comfortable in the place, is at present the property of A. C. Carter. Mrs. Carter is a granddaughter of Harmon.

April 22nd, 1806, I find this entry: "Robert Dickey and Nellie Chapman married. Started to frame the new mill."

"May 3rd--Saw mill and barn raised."

No mention is made of building a house for Willie, so probably there was one on the place. John and his wife lived for a time in the Scurr house, and for a time with Willie, before finally settling at Mount Whatley. Sallie married Gilbert Lawrence, of Westmoreland. It is said Sallie had an admirer who lived in Halifax, and occasionally visited Cumberland, and who in later years became a prominent official in the executive of that city. In the early days and admirer a hundred miles distant was at a great disadvantage, and the "Fooler lad," as Sallie's mother called young

Lawrence, won the prize.

Amos Fowler, of Westmoreland, or Fowler's Hill, married Miss Keillor, a sister of Mrs. Trueman. He was a Loyalist, and after living in this country some years, he visited the old home in New England, and on his return to New Brunswick brought with him his nephew, Gilbert Lawrence. After his marriage Gilbert settled at Amherst Point, and from there moved to Maccan, now called Southampton, where he was a very successful farmer for many years. He left the Maccan farm to a son a few years before his death, and bought a farm in Nappan. Here he spent the last year

s of his life, honored and respected for his sterling character.